Room to spend, and what they did with it
Spending power vs actual spend: the 2026 summer window
The window in numbers
| Division | Within headroom | Beyond headroom | Biggest net spend | Biggest net sale | Division net spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premier League | 8 of 19 checked | 11 of 19 checked | Liverpool (£218.4m) | Crystal Palace (−£62.9m) | £1,210.8m |
| Championship | 14 of 18 checked | 4 of 18 checked | Stoke (£12.8m) | West Ham (−£161.5m) | −£254.8m |
"Within/beyond headroom" only counts clubs where both a net-spend figure and a calculated pre-window headroom exist — see each division's data-gap note below for what's excluded. Premier League clubs spent a combined £1,210.8m net this window; Championship clubs were net sellers overall.
Who sold, and why
Several of the biggest net sellers this window are relegated clubs trimming Premier League wage bills down to Championship or parachute-payment levels — West Ham, Wolves, Southampton and Burnley account for four of the Championship's six largest net sales. That's mostly ordinary post-relegation squad-cutting, not evidence of SCR forcing their hand: Wolves and Burnley both show negative pre-window headroom on this site's figures, meaning their squad cost was already above their calculated limit before the window opened — selling was necessary regardless of SCR.
The Premier League's biggest sellers look different. Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Everton, Nottingham Forest and Brighton were all comfortably within positive headroom before the window, so their sales read as normal squad turnover and player-trading strategy rather than SCR-driven compliance moves. On these figures, nobody in the Premier League appears to have sold specifically because SCR left them no other option.
Premier League
1 of 20 Premier League clubs have no reliable window-spend figure (see below) — treat this division's numbers as a partial picture, not a complete one.
| Club | Pre-window spending power | Window spend | Window sales | Net spend | vs headroom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | £174.7m | £250.1m | £31.7m | £218.4m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Hull City | −£2.9m | £178m | £17m | £160.5m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Ipswich | £20.1m | £171m | £16m | £155m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Man City | £61.8m | £445.3m | £307.2m | £138.1m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Man Utd | £121m | £163m | £38m | £125m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Arsenal | £203m | £198.5m | £101.3m | £97.2m | Within headroom |
| Tottenham | £157.9m | £229.5m | £140.6m | £88.9m | Within headroom |
| Coventry | −£701k | £88.8m | £0 | £88.8m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Fulham | −£9.6m | £87.8m | £17.5m | £70.3m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Brentford | £17.4m | £74m | £5.5m | £68.5m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Leeds | £54.2m | £82.6m | £19.1m | £63.5m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Bournemouth | −£6.4m | £54m | £6.4m | £47.6m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Newcastle | £54.1m | £287.5m | £252.8m | £34.7m | Within headroom |
| Sunderland | £26.4m | £58.3m | £26.9m | £31.4m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Brighton | £36.1m | £154.5m | £164.8m | −£10.4m | Within headroom |
| Nottm Forest | £20.9m | £118.5m | £137.8m | −£19.3m | Within headroom |
| Everton | £38.3m | £63m | £93m | −£30m | Within headroom |
| Aston Villa | £10.8m | £258.7m | £313.3m | −£54.6m | Within headroom |
| Crystal Palace | £21.4m | £11.1m | £74m | −£62.9m | Within headroom |
| Chelsea | £87.3m | - | - | - | No data |
Premier League: no reliable window figure
Press-reported transfer fees for these clubs' 2026 summer window could not be reconciled across sources closely enough to publish a figure. Rather than guess, this site records nothing for them:
Championship
6 of 24 Championship clubs have no reliable window-spend figure (see below) — treat this division's numbers as a partial picture, not a complete one.
| Club | Pre-window spending power | Window spend | Window sales | Net spend | vs headroom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stoke | £12.9m | £12.8m | £0 | £12.8m | Within headroom |
| Swansea | £5.9m | £12.2m | £900k | £11.3m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Derby | £11.6m | £10m | £0 | £10m | Within headroom |
| Preston | £7m | £15m | £5.6m | £9.4m | Spent beyond headroom |
| West Brom | £4.7m | £7.6m | £0 | £7.6m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Birmingham | £7.4m | £3.9m | £1m | £2.9m | Within headroom |
| Blackburn | £7.9m | £2.5m | £0 | £2.5m | Within headroom |
| Bristol City | £14.4m | £4m | £1.8m | £2.2m | Within headroom |
| Cardiff | −£1.1m | £1.5m | £0 | £1.5m | Spent beyond headroom |
| Bolton | £16.3m | £700k | £0 | £700k | Within headroom |
| QPR | £12.3m | £0 | £1.3m | −£1.3m | Within headroom |
| Middlesbrough | £7.2m | £19m | £20.3m | −£1.3m | Within headroom |
| Wolves | £200k | £27.7m | £38m | −£10.3m | Within headroom |
| Millwall | £2.1m | £1m | £15m | −£14m | Within headroom |
| Watford | £10m | £0 | £18.8m | −£18.8m | Within headroom |
| Southampton | £34.8m | £23.1m | £60m | −£36.9m | Within headroom |
| Burnley | −£5.4m | £34.1m | £105.7m | −£71.6m | Within headroom |
| West Ham | £33.8m | £27m | £188.5m | −£161.5m | Within headroom |
| Sheffield Utd | £33.7m | - | £12.5m | - | No data |
| Norwich | £1.3m | - | - | - | No data |
| Wrexham | £24.4m | £33.5m | - | - | No data |
| Portsmouth | £19.5m | £11m | - | - | No data |
| Charlton | £13.4m | - | - | - | No data |
| Lincoln | £15.7m | £4.3m | - | - | No data |
Championship: no reliable window figure
Press-reported transfer fees for these clubs' 2026 summer window could not be reconciled across sources closely enough to publish a figure. Rather than guess, this site records nothing for them:
Why "spent beyond headroom" isn't automatically a breach
SCR squad cost is wages, amortisation and agents' fees drawn from filed accounts, not a live ledger of transfer fees. A club that outspent its calculated pre-window headroom may still be compliant, because:
- A transfer fee is amortised over the length of the contract — a £60m signing on a five-year deal adds roughly £12m a year to squad cost, not £60m at once.
- Player sales can offset new signings in the same accounting period, and SCR's adjusted revenue already nets in a smoothed three-year average of trading profit.
- A club can top up its effective limit with owner equity (Championship) or draw on unused allowance (Premier League) that isn't reflected in the last filed accounts, and once the levy band takes effect, sitting above 85% costs money rather than points.
These figures also compare a Premier League club's domestic SCR position with the different rules it may face elsewhere — see how PSR and SCR differ → and, for a relegated club rebuilding around parachute payments →, why its post-relegation spending power looks nothing like its Premier League years.
This table is a plausibility check, not a compliance verdict — the real test happens when each club's next accounts are filed and assessed. Read the full methodology →
Every Premier League club ranked by headroom →
Every Championship club ranked by headroom →